In the town of Jaleshwar, headquarters of Mahottari district, stands the temple from which the town takes its name — Jaleshwar Mahadev, the “Lord of the Waters.” Its distinguishing feature is a Shiva linga submerged in a water tank below the sanctum, reached by a flight of stone steps; for most of the year it lies underwater, and devotees can touch it directly only on Mahashivratri.
Tradition reaches the temple’s antiquity back to the age of King Janaka, and holds that soil for Rama and Sita’s wedding rites was taken from here, tying it into the Mithila-Ramayana landscape. A copper inscription records that in 1812 CE King Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah endowed land for its upkeep; the present structure shows a domed (gumbaja) style with an adjoining pond.
One of the great Shiva shrines of the Nepal Tarai, it fills with worshippers on Mahashivratri and through the month of Shravan, drawing pilgrims from both sides of the open Nepal-India border.
